Idole d'un jour

"It Happened in Hollywood" (1937)is a frothy little comedy with a brilliant gimmick. The star of the film is Richard Dix, a rugged actor who usually played two-fisted action roles but occasionally gave excellent performances in romantic comedies. It won't spoil your fun if I tell you the gimmick. Some of Hollywood's biggest stars of the time (1937) make brief appearances in this film, including Clark Gable, Greta Garbo, James Cagney, W.C. Fields ... plus Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, who hadn't officially retired from acting yet. Now here's the gimmick: all of those big stars are played in this film by THEIR OWN STAND-INS, the wanna-be actors and actresses who (unlike most actors) had full-time employment in the Hollywood studios, but who only kept working by copying the physical appearance of a better-known actor (or actress) and following that actor from one film role to the next. (Stand-ins, unlike stunt doubles, almost never appear onscreen: their chief job is to stand in for the "real" actor during time-consuming lighting set-ups, wearing a duplicate of that actor's costume. Stand-ins are required to maintain the same build, hairstyle and complexion as the person whom they're imitating, which limits their ability to get acting jobs in their own right.)

So, in "It Happened in Hollywood" we meet Bing Crosby, played by an obscure lookalike actor whose real-life job was to stand in for the genuine Bing during all of Crosby's films. John Barrymore (Drew's grandfather) is played here by Barrymore's full-time double. Victor McLaglen is played by his own brother, who was his real-life stand-in. Marlene Dietrich and Garbo are played by their own stand-ins: real-life sisters named Dietrich (no relation to Marlene).

This gimmick wouldn't work nowadays, because movie stars no longer have long-term relationships with a single movie studio; consequently, they use a different stand-in for each film, and they don't maintain ongoing working relationships with a particular lookalike.

I'll rate "It Happened in Hollywood" 4 out of 10.

Richard Dix stars as Tim Bart, a real-life cowboy who becomes a big silent western star who is particularly loved and idolized by children. Then the talkies come along and the fact that cameras must be static and locked down in soundproof booths at the dawn of sound makes it impossible for westerns to be made for a couple of years.

Bart is blind-sided by the sudden change and initially is given a screen test in the romantic scene of a modern dress drawing room drama wearing formal attire and given ridiculous flowery dialogue to recite. Being completely unaccustomed to dialogue at all, he flunks his screen test and is dismissed from the studio. The rest of the film has to do with how he handles being made obsolete overnight by these technological advances and changing tastes.

This is different from most other films on the subject of big stars being "washed up" because Dix's Bart has such a positive outlook and a generous spirit. He always figures he'll get by, and so there is no bitterness or turning to drink or any other such tropes that you find in the riches to rags stories of forgotten stars. Only when someone else who he cares about needs cash urgently does he even think about making a wrong turn.

Dix's powerful, vivid performance seems inspired by his own image and also knits fact and fiction together for a spot-on replication of many silent movie actors and Western talkie movie actors of that era. An inspired party scene, where doppelgangers for Charlie Chaplin, W. C. Fields, Mae West, Great Garbo, Joan Crawford, and other actors mingle with real-life prominent characters actors creates an eerie mirror image of Hollywood.

I will note that Dix didn't have any such experience in Hollywood even though he was a silent actor for quite a few years before the dawn of sound. Dix was already a "modern dress" actor during the silent era, so not much changed for him. He actually first did more westerns after the movies could begin filming outdoors again, in the early 30s.

This was a real surprise and is a fun film especially for anybody who is interested in this transitional period in filmmaking.

Wonderful flick about the transition from silent movies to talkies. For a B movie, the direction by Lachman is top drawer, and the acting by Dix and Wray (far better here than in famously screamy role in KING KONG, for instance) quite splendid.

The cherry on the cake is that it takes a touching approach to the problem of overnight joblessness in a glamorous, no failure accepted, world, without losing contact with reality. True love can really save the day!

The film opens on young children watching a silent film, as it ends, and they applaud and the young boys say they want to be just like the cowboy when they grow up. One boy in particular, who is sick and laid up, takes it all to heart and hopes to meet the actor someday, who is Richard Dix. But Richard's world will be toppled, when he is asked to be a gangster in a film robbing a bank and killing innocent people. He has an image to uphold to his fans. The studio tells him it's this or nothing. He starts the film, but he can't stomach this brutality and quits. Such is his predicament, dignity but no money, and soon the boy will appear at his door. What ensues is a very thoughtful and moving experience about our idols and how they are only human and how we try to be what people expect of us. Though the ending is rather abrupt, I enjoyed this unique little film which also boasts a lot of lookalikes of celebrities of the time. Discover "Once a Hero" today and see for yourself how a hero, although human, is always a hero.

I never liked Richard Dix, but after seeing It Happened in Hollywood from 1937, I have changed my mind.

The movie also stars Fay Wray. The film concerns a very important part of film history, the arrival of the talkies. Western silent screen star Tim Bart (based probably on Tom Mix) is a huge attraction for young kids everywhere. They belong to his special club, he visits them in hospitals - he is a great hero.

Tim's frequent costar is the beautiful Gloria Gay (Wray). She and Tim are in love, but neither one acknowledges it - it's possible Tim thinks she's too classy for him. Obviously she doesn't feel that way.

When talkies come in, westerns go that-away. Tim is now in formal attire, filming on a set - he's uncomfortable, he can't remember his lines - so the studio gets rid of him and keeps Gloria.

Tim gets into a bar fight at his favorite haunt and is spotted by a director who thinks he would be great as a gangster. He would be - but that would be letting down his kids. When push comes to shove, he won't do it.

One of his fans who was about to have surgery had promised to get well and visit Tim - and he shows up. Tim at this point is no longer a star, and he has no money. The boy falls off of Tim's horse and is put on bedrest - meaning that Tim can't send him back home (which I think is an orphanage or a special hospital).

Tim decides to call in a few favors, and it turns out, everybody is willing to help. He wants to throw a big party for the boy. He borrows his old ranch for the day. His friends provide food and music.

And the guests - the guests are movie star stand-ins and doubles, and some of them are remarkably like the originals: Joan Crawford, Irene Dunne, Loretta Young, W. C. Fields, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, John Barrymore, Greta Garbo, and Mae West, to name a few.

I won't spoil the end, but this is a fun, sweet, feel-good film. Dix is very likeable and natural, and Wray is her usual glamorous and gorgeous self. Enjoy the film, and enjoy those doubles and stand-ins!